Heritage
Planning Context The "Core Area Sector Plan " prepared in 2003-4 is indicative of the planning vision for the Core Area of Ottawa in general and the Rideau Canal corridor specifically. The City of Ottawa Official Plan is maintained in concordance with the Core Area Sector Plan and is intended to protect the integrity of the planning vision. Among other things, the sector plan is intended to: *Define a coherent approach to the long term planning of the Core Area that supports a standard of quality in land use and urban design. *Enhance levels of participation, appreciation, animation and safety in the offering of memorable experiences of visitors in their exploration and discovery of the Core Area of the Capital. *Promote a comprehensive approach to the preservation of built heritage, cultural landscapes and archaeological resources in the Core Area. *Imagine, plane and manage these (Open Spaces, Parks, Stages and Public Places) spaces and places in a sustainable fashion, by seeking to preserve, improve and use these resources in an optimum and responsible way. *Protect and improve, in cooperation with partner agencies, the primary views to the national symbols and the visual primacy of the Parliamentary buildings. In particular, the plan is also intended to preserve the integrity of specific character sectors of the Core Area. Specifically, with regard to the Rideau Canal, the role of the Core Area Sector Plan is to: : Enhance the role of the Canal as one of the key structuring physical features of the National Capital Region, redefine the Canal area's open spaces and structures as urban waterfront parks oriented to the Canal, and work with Parks Canada and the City of Ottawa to establish strong pedestrian linkages along and over the Canal and between the Canal and neighbouring streets and districts. One of the key means of preserving the character of the Core Area and preserving heritage and public spaces is the NCC's Advisory Committee on Planning, Development and Realty. This committee recommended against the proposal for digital screens and noted that, while the proposal was intriguing as a means of enhancing participation and animation, it failed to preserve the built heritage embodied in the Rideau Canal and the Chateau Laurier and represented an unwarranted commercial intrusion into the public realm, particularly into space reserved for parkland use. Development Application Review The City of Ottawa Official Plan established policies governing review of all development applications under site plan control. Under this regime, significant elements of the site plan such as digital signs forming architectural features of the site would have to meet general and site-specific policies related to allowable uses, contextual relationship to surroundings, adjacent land uses and built heritage and cultural landscapes. Notwithstanding that the NCC imposes specific covenants restricting signage on its own approval of the site plan, there are multiple regulatory requirements that would have been required for digital signage to be included in the Ottawa Convention Centre site plan. Any attempt to obtain after-the-fact approval for a digital sign without satisfying such requirements would be an end run around the site plan control dictated under the Official Plan. The following sections outline requirements that would apply to the digital billboards under the Development Application Review component of the Official Plan. Cultural Heritage Impact Sections 4.6.1 and 4.6.3 mandate site plan review of the cultural heritage impact of development adjacent to the Rideau Canal, in particular, and adjacent to built heritage resources generally. Traveler Safety Sec. 4.6.4. of the Official Plan mandates site plan review on the impact on traveler safety. Values of Scenic Entry Routes The Official Plan recognizes a number of scenic entry routes into the city and further recognizes nodes and entry points into the Core Area sector, in particular. As Colonel By Drive is a scenic entry point, site plan review of the impact on views and vistas is mandated by Sec. 4.6.4. Likewise, the Rideau Canal corridor itself constitutes a scenic entry way. Adjacent-to Green Space Impact Section 4.10 of the Official Plan mandates site plan review of the impact of the development of the site on views onto the site from adjacent green spaces. This would include: Confederation Park (zoned L2B F(2.5) H(147) A.S.L.), adjoining green spaces (L2B F(2.5) H(153) A.S.L.), Rideau Canal Corridor (zoned O1L310-h). Urban Design Guidelines In addtion to the city's zoning regulations to implement the Official Plan, the City also mandates a number of urban design objectives and urban design guidelines that are intended to ensure that evaluation of design proposals, minor variances, etc. are conducted consistently with policies embodied within the Official Plan. In consideration of Ottawa Convention Centre digital billboards proposal, there are two key sets of guidelines that need to be consulted to evaluate any proposal: the Urban Design Guidelines for regional road corridors, and the Urban Design Guidelines for Large-Format Retail. Although technically a mixed development area institutional/commercial use, the retail guidelines represent the most relevant guidelines that the city has for commercial uses. Urban Design Objectives The digital billboard proposal from the Ottawa Convention Centre is inconsistent with a number of the city's urban design objectives, including the following in particular: Objective 1: 1. Views and Vistas : contribute to memorable and inspiring public views The "picture postcard" view of the rideau canal down the rideau canal corridor to the Chateau Laurier is a long-established and memorable view that substantially contributes to the character of Ottawa and literally forms the basis for thousands of postcards that tourists buy of the Ottawa area each year. Placing a large digital screen broadcasting advertising and promotional content, including animated content only detracts from this view. Objective 4: Respect Established Character 13. Complement the surrounding scale, mass and rhythm with compatible architecture 14. Community Landmarks : develop around landmarks with sensitivity 15. Cultural Landscapes : preserve our historical relationship with the land Large Format Retail Design Guidelines The proposed digital billboards are inconsistent with several of the urban design guidelines for large format retail spaces, including the following in particular: Guideline 40: design sign illumination to be task-oriented and to avoid glare / light spill-over toward adjacent land uses. The proposed location is adjacent to not only the greenspaces of Confederation Park (L2B) and the Rideau Canal Corridor (O1L), but is also highly visible from multiple residential neighbourhoods in both the Golden Triangle and Old Ottawa East. Guideline 41: Locate and design ground-mounted and wall-mounted signs to complement the character and scale of the area. At 50% (approximate) or more of the wall space of the South facade of the Convention Centre, these signs would not only dominate the wall space itself, but key elments of the surrounding area. The sheer size of the displays would dominate the foreground view (especially due to luminous emission) of the heritage Chateau Laurier. Futhermore, the digital billboards with substantial amounts of commercial content and high intensity illumination are completely out-of-keeping with their heritage surroundings (Rideau Canal, Chateau Laurier, Laurier bridge, etc.). While the Ottawa Convention Centre managed to achieve a harmony with its surroundings in the round, the juxtaposition of this element from the south would be utterly jarring and detrimental to the character of the Core Area heritage and greenspace elements. Guideline 44: prohibit billboards, ... (No explanation necessary..) Guideline 39: ... but avoid individual corporate image, colour and backlit signs from dominating the site. The issue of scale has been dealt with above. The sheer scale ensures that the OCC image would dominate not just the site, but the surrounding areas. Added to that, the light intensity from massive digital displays would further dominate both the site and elements in the background view (such as the Chateau Laurier when viewed from the South). Regional Road Corridor Design Guidelines In addition, there are specific design guidelines related to arteries into and around the City, covering different characters of streets, including the scenic entry routes into the City. The digital billboards proposal is inconsistent with the following design guidelines laid out in section 7.1.5 (On-site signs). 7. Prohibit signs with flashing, animated, pulsating, rotating or otherwise moving components, so that road users are not distracted 8. Consider prohibiting the erection of large billboard signs The proposed digital billboards are also inconsistent with the spirit of a further guideline for on-site signs: 1. Design ground-mounted and wallmounted signs to be in scale with the adjacent buildings and land uses in terms of height, width and surface area, and to avoid a cluttered streetscape. Prescribe maximum signage area, or regulate sign area as a percentage of the wall to which it is attached. Consider 6m as a maximum height for pylon signs. The current sign bylaw prescribes a maximum wall area of 25% of the elevation. This is more liberal than the MTO standard (25% of visible area). The proposal is far greater than the limit. The MTO further regulates absolute maximum area, which is consistent with the design guideline, while the proposal is more than 3 times the area allowable under MTO corridor regulations. Viewpoint Protection Canada's Capital View Protection is intended to preserve the primacy of the Parliament buildings and Canada's national symbols. It also contemplates preservation of built heritage in the Core Area. The Offical Plan for the City of Ottawa codifies the Capital View Protection. The proposed digital billboards compromise the protections of key viewpoints 17 and 18 in the View Protection plan and the view sequences between them.